


please don't take off my mask (my place to hide)

by Bara_no_Uta



Category: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni | Higurashi When They Cry, Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, probably no Persona spoilers, spoilers for Matsuribayashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bara_no_Uta/pseuds/Bara_no_Uta
Summary: “This woman wants to become a god. She believes that enacting the ‘Curse of Oyashiro-sama’ will deify her.” Rika looked around the room. “Please, I’ve tried so many times to find a timeline where my friends and I survive, but every time, she kills me a little after the Watanagashi Festival… if I survive long enough for her to kill me.”The group exchanged glances. Ann was the first to nod, and soon they had silently reached a consensus.---Takano Miyo,We know of your prideful delusions. You kill, believing it will bring you closer to your wish of becoming a god. We will steal your heart and force you to confess your crimes.– The Phantom Thieves.
Relationships: Takano Miyo/Tomitake Jirou
Kudos: 8





	1. the last ace in a lost hand

**Author's Note:**

> Quick note, the reason everyone assumes Rika is a boy in the beginning is because the personal pronoun she uses (boku) is typically used by young boys. This, along with her using 'nano desu' to end sentences were things that, while I can't not see them being a part of how the Phantom Thieves would perceive her, simply don't translate well to call attention to in English! I wasn't going to end her sentences with ~nano desu in an English fic because that looks awkward...
> 
> Also, I'll admit that my memory of how Palaces and things work is a little shaky. I tried watching the anime as a refresher but it doesn't really detail that. So, any inconsistencies with how actual gameplay goes, please just chalk up to being a part of the AU, along with me completely hand-waving the eras the two series take place in!

「I have a request.」 The message came in on the Phan-site one evening early in June. 「Please, I need you to steal this person’s heart before she kills us!」

The group looked at each other. “ _There’s no name_ …” Morgana pointed out. They wouldn’t know whose heart they were agreeing to steal.

「I live in a town called Hinamizawa, part of Shishibone City. I’ll be watching for you, Phantom Thieves. Please come save us. We have until June 19… if we can make it until then. 」

“Hinamizawa…?” Ryuuji repeated, looking it up on his phone. He had never even heard of the place.

“Shishibone City… that’s right by Gifu Prefecture,” Makoto said.

Ann crossed her arms. “I think we should go find out more. He sounds serious that they’re going to be killed…”

“I don’t know. Do you think he could be luring us into a trap?” Ren asked.

Ryuuji closed out of the window he had been looking at. “I dunno. It seems like a long ways to go just to set us up. Why would they pick some random town in the middle of nowhere?”

“Unless that’s what they want us to think,” Makoto murmured.

“In a way, that’s a risk that we take with every request,” Yuusuke pointed out.

Ren nodded. “You have a point. Being away from our home base makes it riskier, and we’ll have to come up with an excuse to explain why we’re going on a trip. But if this is something you all want, I’m in support.”

“ _Any objections?_ ” Morgana asked, looking around. When no one objected, he continued. “ _Then I guess we’d better get planning!_ ”

\---

The group stepped onto the train station platform. They had been traveling for hours, but at least taking the bullet train made the trip go relatively quickly.

The platform was empty save for one little girl who was standing with her back to the fence, looking right at them. When she saw them, she looked up and smiled brightly as she greeted them in a bubbly voice. “Nipaa~! I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Uh…” Ryuuji looked around at the others and saw that they were just as confused as he was.

Ann was the first one to recover, coming closer and kneeling down to be closer to the blue haired little girl’s eye level. “What’s your name?”

“My name is Furude Rika!”

When they processed her way of speaking, they realized she was the one who had made the request.

“A girl who says ‘boku,’ huh?” Ryuuji muttered. Not that it really mattered if the request had come from a boy or a girl, just that it had thrown them off.

“And you’re the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, right? Oyashiro-sama told me all about you~!”

“Oyashiro-sama…?” Makoto repeated, trying to think if she had ever heard the name before. It didn’t sound familiar.

“Oyashiro-sama is Hinamizawa’s guardian deity,” Rika explained. “I’m her reincarnation, so I get to know some secrets~ Come on, I’ll bring you someplace we can talk without anybody overhearing.”

Despite her somewhat alarming claim to have spoken to a literal deity – which, in the grand of scheme of things actually seemed pretty normal to the group, considering the source of many of their Personas – they followed her into the city.

Everybody they passed greeted Rika with a big smile, especially the older people, and she greeted them back. Whoever she was, she was apparently pretty well-known here… and pretty well-respected, if the way older adults spoke to her was any indication. Like, strangely well-respected for being very obviously a child. Whatever her ‘reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama’ thing was about, it didn’t seem hard to believe that the villagers really thought it to be true.

“Oh! Rika-chan, who are they?” a man wearing a camera around his neck asked.

She grinned. “They’re tourists, just like you, Tomitake-san! I’m just showing them around.”

“In town for the Watanagashi Festival?” he asked them.

“Yes,” Makoto said at the same time as Yusuke said, “No.”

Ann laughed nervously. “Uh—yes, but not just for that!”

He actually seemed to believe her, which surprised everyone except Rika. “Well, I hope you have a great time. Let me know if you’re looking for any scenic spots! I mostly photograph birds, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have an eye for landscapes too.”

“Nipaa~ I wonder if Takano-san would be happy if you took her to some of those scenic places?” Rika asked, giggling when the question made him blush.

“It’s not nice to tease adults like that, you know…” he protested, though he didn’t actually seem particularly bothered – just flustered.

“Anyway, I want to show them the shrine before it gets dark! See you later.”

“Bye – nice meeting you all,” he said before taking off.

Rika led them up a hill and to a shrine. She snuck them into the main house, knowing Satoko would be in the side house where they usually stayed. This was the safest place to talk, because she didn’t know yet who would be where in this timeline.

She shut the door behind them, and once everyone had changed from their outdoor shoes to a pair of indoor slippers, she showed them to the big table. “I’m going to make some tea!” she announced. Despite her age, she seemed to know how to host.

They knelt down at the table, looking around the traditional-style home and waiting for Rika to come back with the tea.

“ _Be careful, everyone_ ,” Morgana said from Ren’s bag, loud enough for the whole group to hear. He was the only one who could speak without being overheard, or at least without being understood… or so he thought. “ _I sense a strange presence around her_.”

In the kitchen, Hanyuu stomped her feet. “ _Rikaaaaa, they’re calling me a ‘strange presence’!_ ”

She raised an eyebrow and whispered, “What do you expect? You’ve been following them for a week. You’re lucky they don’t think we’re stalkers.”

Hanyuu pouted. “ _Hauuu_ …”

After a few seconds, Rika smiled at her. Still in a whisper, she said, “You did well. You got a lot of information. I’ll reward you with some cream puffs later, okay?”

“Cream puffs!” She beamed, celebrating the upcoming treat.

When the tea was getting close to boiling, Rika brought out enough cups for everybody, herself included. Finally, she brought the tea out and filled everyone’s cups, her own last.

“You’re such a good hostess, Rika-chan!” Ann praised her.

Rika smiled brightly. “Thank you!”

Having poured everybody’s tea, Rika sat down.

“Rika-chan… do you live by yourself?” Ren ventured carefully. If the answer was yes, not only would that be shocking, but it would likely be a rather sensitive topic.

“Nope! I live with my best friend, Satoko-chan. I guess I should tell you why I called you here, huh?”

The group watched as Rika transformed right before them. Her shape was the same, but her expression and the look in her eyes were so different that she may as well have been a completely different person. She looked impossibly mature for her age and… downright haunted.

“This town is cursed.” When she spoke, her voice was dark, distant and far too mature for her age. It wasn’t just her tone, but her voice got deeper, the tempo slowed, and her manner of speaking lacked the playful, childish quirks she had spoken with until now. “My parents… Satoko’s parents… Satoko’s aunt and brother… they all fell victim to the ‘Curse of Oyashiro-sama.’ But it isn’t a divine being, or even an evil spirit, who has created this so-called curse. They were murdered by a human.”

Chills ran down a few of their spines. If the complete shift in Rika’s demeanor wasn’t enough to spook them, hearing her speak so calmly about murder – let alone the murder of her own parents – certainly was.

“You might not believe me, but that same person is going to kill me… and make sure that all of my friends are dead, too.” Technically, she didn’t know what would happen in this timeline for sure. All she knew was that in the last timeline, she had finally found out who was behind the series of mysterious deaths… after watching all her friends be killed. She could only assume the worst. “You only deal with people whose hearts are deeply twisted, I know. So let me tell you that she would laugh hysterically while she sliced my belly open while I was still awake.”

_“Hauu… Rika, that might have been too much…_ ” Hanyuu pointed out, taking in everybody’s disturbed and disgusted expressions.

“I know because she did it in another timeline.” Considering all that they saw in… well, she didn’t know the details of how they stole hearts, but she knew it involved some sort of alternate universe and would come across to people unfamiliar with it as more or less magic. Since they had experience with that, surely parallel universes weren’t too far-fetched for them to believe? “I can’t go to the police with this. She has forces supporting her that are mightier than the police, and anyway, every time I’ve tried to talk to the adults…. they almost never listen.”

That was a familiar problem to them. Every single one of them had adults fail to protect them, or worse, who had actively harmed them in some way. Hearing that Rika was in a similar situation was disheartening considering how young she seemed to be, and because they didn’t want anyone to have to go through that, and yet it also built a sense of solidarity.

“This woman wants to become a god. She believes that enacting the ‘Curse of Oyashiro-sama’ will deify her.” She looked around the room. “Please, I’ve tried so many times to find a timeline where my friends and I survive, but every time, she kills me a little after the Watanagashi Festival… if I survive long enough for her to kill me.”

The group exchanged glances. Ann was the first to nod, and soon they had silently reached a consensus.

“We need to know a name, location, and distortion. That is, her name, what she sees in a distorted way, and how she sees it.” As he spoke, Ren pulled up the navigator on his phone. “What’s her name?”

“Takano Miyo.”

He repeated the name.

“ _Hit found.”_

Could it be the entire town? And if she wanted to become a god… Makoto tried, “A shrine.”

“ _Hit found.”_

The world around them warped and shifted. Soon, Rika had disappeared, leaving just the Phantom Thieves.

They were outside, and the whole place… literally looked like a giant shrine. They could see stairs up ahead leading to the main part of the shrine.

“Should we…?” Makoto motioned to the trough for temizuya, water purification.

“I’m not sure we should be trusting the water here,” Ryuuji mumbled, looking around. At a glance, the place didn’t look horribly distorted just yet, but there was no telling what that could do to them.

Ren looked to Morgana for insight on the most appropriate course of action.

Morgana frowned, thinking it over. “I don’t think we’ll be allowed forward if we don’t ‘pay proper respect’ by purifying ourselves.”

The group went to the trough and used the water to rinse their hands and mouths, just as though they were at a real shrine, and then began to climb the stairs.

The large shrine at the top should have gotten closer as they ascended, but instead, it looked as though it was getting farther and farther away. When they reached the top of the stairs, they saw that the shrine actually sat atop a mountain and they had to climb a new, winding set of stairs carved into the mountain in order to reach it. There were torii gates everywhere on these stairs.

“Anyone else ever been to Fushimi Inari Taisha?” Ann mumbled when they started up this new set.

“The one with the thousands of torii?” Ryuuji asked.

Makoto managed to smile, though she was getting out of breath too. “I haven’t, but I can see where you’re coming from…”

Just then, they were attacked by a group of shadows.

The next part of their journey was a long, _long_ climb up the stairs, occasionally being stopped to fight some more shadows. At least they actually were getting close to the shrine now.

Eventually, they reached it at the top of the stairs. Makoto was the first to go read the inscription.

“It says this shrine is for… Takano _Hifumi?_ ” She tried to sound it out with a couple of different readings of the kanji in the name, but no matter what she tried, there was no way that the name written was ‘Takano Miyo.’

Morgana looked at the offering box. “I think this is where the treasure will be.”

“Okay. So for today, we go back and prepare a calling card?” Ren asked, looking around the group. When everyone nodded in agreement, he started to lead the group back to the real world.

Apparently having been waiting for them, Rika jumped up when she saw the group materialize in her house again. “Did you do it?”

“Not yet,” Ren told her. “The first time, we learn the layout. Then we send a calling card, and once they’ve seen it, we steal their heart.”


	2. find yourself in the debris

The note was on her desk, though she had no idea how it got there. The only people in the clinic at this hour were all people she knew – unless perhaps one of them had betrayed her – and that black cat that she had just shooed out. Honestly, she liked cats, but they weren’t exactly conducive to the sterile environment needed in a clinic. Maybe she would give it some milk later, she had thought as she closed the door.

But when she got to her desk and saw the red and black card with a message made out of letters pasted onto it, everything else was forgotten.

_Takano Miyo,_

_We know of your prideful delusions. You kill, believing it will bring you closer to your wish of becoming a god. We will steal your heart and force you to confess your crimes._

_– The Phantom Thieves._

Terrified for someone to see it, she ripped the note up into small shreds before throwing it away. Her heart pounded, and she found herself scratching at her arms in an attempt to calm herself down.

“Takano-san? Are you ready?” Irie called to her as he approached from a little ways down the hall.

That was enough for her to shake herself and pull it together. She couldn’t let him see how agitated she felt, or he would ask why. It wasn’t like he didn’t know of the atrocities she had committed, but… she knew he was barely on board with them. Revealing the note she had gotten might shake him up and cause him to say something unnecessary, which could blow their entire cover.

Force her to confess her crimes? As if. She wasn’t like Irie, who babbled when he was nervous. She had kept this secret for years, even from the person she trusted most, Tomitake. There was nothing these so-called “Phantom Thieves” could do to _force_ her.

Still, they might be intending on abducting and torturing her. She wished that she had showed the note to Otonogi as proof instead of ripping it up, or at least shown him before she destroyed it. Perhaps the Yamainu could offer her some extra protection.

Honestly, news of the Phantom Thieves hadn’t particularly reached Hinamizawa, which was old and quite technologically behind. It was only because of Hanyuu that Rika had found out and been able to contact them in the first place. Because of that, Miyo had even less idea about their methods than those who heard about them in the news and at least knew enough to put together that it involved a person’s internal world.

She had a date with Tomitake that afternoon. She wondered if she should cancel it and stay home. It might be safer… Could she count on him to protect her?

She debated it through her whole shift, but when he arrived, looking so eager, she decided she couldn’t bring herself to tell him to go away. After all, this year was the last one they would have together. In only a couple of weeks, she would have to kill him… so the time that she could spend with him right now was extremely precious.

“Is something on your mind?” he asked, watching her stare into the distance.

She quickly shook her head. “Just tired today. So where are we headed? Hm, can we get some ramen for dinner?”

Always eager to indulge her requests to the best of his ability, he grinned and answered with a little too much enthusiasm. “Sure, ramen sounds fantastic!”

She smiled, finding it endearing how flustered he would get at the smallest of things. It was reassuring, too… in fact, his complete inability to hide his emotions was one of the reasons she found herself actually able to trust him, as much as she had ever been able to trust anybody.

Meanwhile, the Phantom Thieves were making their way toward the treasure.

“Man, why can’t this place have an elevator?” Ryuuji quipped.

“We’re getting close!” Morgana encouraged them.

Ren in the lead, they came within arm’s reach of the treasure…

…when suddenly, a large hole opened up in the ground, sending the entire group free-falling through pitch darkness.

When they landed, they still couldn’t see anything. The only light came from an occasional strike of what appeared to be lightning, but even that only illuminated its own shape. They walked through the pitch darkness, stumbling every now and then on tree roots or stones, sometimes bumping into trees. It seemed they were in some kind of forest. It seemed to be pouring rain, making their footing even less certain, but for some reason the rain didn’t stick to them or get them wet.

“Stay together,” Morgana told them. While it was impossible to see each other, they could hear each other’s footsteps sticking through the mud as an indication that they were all going in the same direction.

A lightning strike illuminated a phone booth near them, and it began to glow. In its light, they could see the form of a little girl who looked to be about ten years old. She was barefoot, completely drenched from the rain, her clothes and body covered in mud. Her eyes, filled with the distinctive yellow glow of a Shadow, were red rimmed and puffy as though she had been crying.

This wasn’t the Takano Miyo who Rika had pointed out to them, but she had the same presence, Morgana noted.

“You’re wrong,” the little girl told them, her voice distorted. “Takano Miyo’s pride isn’t thinking herself able to become a god. It’s thinking she was ever able to leave this place.” A lightning strike hit, and a building on the horizon began to glow. It was hard to tell what it was from as far away as they were, but she could recognize the shape of the orphanage anywhere. “She thinks she can escape me. Clinging to her grandfather. When in the end, she knows where she really belongs.”

A loud clanging noise could be heard, like metal being kicked in. The screams and cries of children, and a little girl repeating “ _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry_ ” could be heard over the sound of men shouting and cursing at them. The group felt the muddy rainwater, instead of puddling at their feet, begin to rise as though they had just fallen into a lake. It rose until they were up to their chests, Morgana quickly scurrying up Ren’s back to take shelter on his head.

“That is the true Takano Miyo.”

With that, the little girl lunged at them. Ren called forth his Persona and began to fight. While it was hard to see what was going on, the others called forth theirs and joined him to defend themselves against the Shadow.

When she was defeated, the water drained. Almost as though someone had brought in a giant vacuum cleaner, they were sucked back up to the temple. A few stairs down from the offering box, they saw the little girl standing right by it.

She bowed twice, clapped twice, and closed her eyes to pray. “I’m sorry, Grandfather.” She bowed again, and then disappeared.

When they opened the offering box, there was no money inside. Rather, it contained a hand-written research paper. It was in impeccable shape, with no wrinkles or tears. It had clearly been treated as something incredibly precious.

Ren picked it up and they left the Palace.

They were walking up to their favorite scenic spot for photography, nearly at the top of the hill by the shrine, when a wave of dizziness washed over Miyo. She wavered, leaning into Tomitake, who was able to catch her and keep her from falling.

“Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, worry evident in his voice as he looked at her expression. “I think we should go sit down. C’mon, there’s a bench right over here – can you walk?”

“I… think so,” she murmured. Her body felt weak and unsteady. When he put his arm around her, she didn’t hesitate to lean into his body for support as they made their way to the bench.

After helping her get situated, he sat next to her. Her complexion was pale and her eyes distant. “Are you not feeling well? Takano-san… you know you can tell me these things, right? Is that why you’ve been acting so off today?”

It was hard to even think. Her mind raced, playing back all the crimes she had committed since coming to Hinamizawa and all the crimes she planned to commit. When she looked at Tomitake, tears started to form in her eyes.

She was going to _kill_ him.

She couldn’t do it. It would mean that she would be alone for all eternity, unable to ascend to godhood with her grandfather, and she was sure it would make Tomitake hate her… for whatever short time she was allowed to live before Nomura killed her, that was.

But she couldn’t do it. “I need to tell you something.”

The statement startled him, and her expression made his heart clench painfully. In that moment, he vowed to do whatever he could to help and reassure her. Of course, he had no idea what she was about to disclose.

And at first, neither did she. She knew the gist of it, but there was so much that communicating it became difficult, and all she could manage was, “I’m not the good person you think I am.”

He ran a hand through her hair, frowning in confusion, at a loss for words.

She wished he had said something in response, but the logical part of her knew that he probably didn’t know what to say to such a vague statement. “Jirou-san… I…” A small sob cut her off, and she allowed herself to be drawn into his arms, resting her head against his shoulder. It scared her to imagine him pulling away and looking at her in disgust, so much that she almost lost her nerve. And yet, the only thing that she could imagine being worse than that was to continue moving forward with the crushing guilt she felt. “I’ve done terrible things. And I was planning on doing even more terrible things.”

He tensed. It was only natural to want to pull away and seek clarification, but with the woman he loved crying in his arms, he couldn’t quite bring himself to move away from her.

“The Curse of Oyashiro-sama is my fault. Not all of it, but some of it. And this year… I-I was going to…” She wanted to blame Nomura, but she knew she couldn’t pin her own wrongdoings on somebody else. She had to accept responsibility for going along with it, even if it hadn’t been her idea. “With the Yamainu, we were going to destroy all of Hinamizawa. Kill everybody in it.”

He blinked, struggling to process what she was telling him. He had known that sometimes she could get carried away, and there was a side of her that sometimes scared him with how… devoted she was to the research. But he had never thought she was capable of outright murdering anybody, let alone an entire village. It made sense that she had kept it secret from him as the auditor from ‘Tokyo’… The question he found himself getting stuck on was, “Why?”

“I wanted to make my grandfather a god… and become a god, too. I thought… if his research was proven to be true, we would become gods for those findings. We would dethrone Oyashiro-sama and take Oyashiro-sama’s place.”

How could an explanation simultaneously make an unsettling amount of sense while also making absolutely no sense at all?

“I told you, didn’t I? That Tanashi Miyoko died in that orphanage?” she asked, waiting for his nod of confirmation that he remembered before she continued. “When my grandfather saved me… I vowed to live my life for his sake. I lived to continue his research. That was my only reason for surviving.”

And so when she was told that the funding was about to be cut and they would make it look as though the syndrome had never existed… He felt sick, disturbed by the plan she had ended up with and his own helplessness. If only he had been more aware and responsive to the things on her mind, maybe things never would have had to go so far. “Do you think that’s what he would have wanted?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation.

He had expected her to say that no, he would care more about her happiness, so the answer caught him off guard. Whether it was true or not, Miyo really thought that her grandfather would have cared more about his research than her wellbeing.

“I’m sure my grandfather wishes he’d never met me,” she managed, her shoulders shaking harder. “All I did was weigh him down, and now I’m going to be the reason his research is destroyed completely. If only he hadn’t had to worry about a little girl, maybe he could have been so much more successful. That’s why I thought I had to… I had to accept this plan; I had to carry it out; I had to save his research as much as I can.” She hid her face deeper into his shirt, leading to him barely being able to understand her words as she mumbled, “What a joke. I _should_ have died that day.”

He was distressed at his own powerlessness. Was there anything he could say to make her feel better? He knew there was probably no way to convince her she was wrong about what her grandfather would think, no matter how much he very much sincerely did not think she could be right about that. If she was… that didn’t reflect well on her grandfather, to say the least. But short of finding a way for the dead to speak, there was no way to know anymore what he would or wouldn’t say.

“Thank you for telling me all of this,” he said softly when he finally gathered his thoughts enough to manage some words. “We’ll figure this out together, okay? I’ll help you find a way out of this.”

He didn’t hate her. He was offering to stay by her side, even after she told him everything. It was too hard to believe. Miyo pulled away to look him in the eyes. “You still… want to help me?” Even after seeing her fall apart, and even after learning what a monster she really was?

He brushed away some of his tears, though the gesture was somewhat pointless as they were quickly replaced by fresh ones. “Of course I do. Takano-san… I won’t say you didn’t do bad things. Or that I approve of the plan you were a part of. But you’re telling me now, and anyway…” He smiled sheepishly. “I don’t think there’s anything you could do that would make me stop caring about you.”

_I love you._ She held the words back, feeling that they had probably had enough emotional conversations for one day, and a little afraid still that when he processed today he would change his mind. “I just didn’t want to be alone anymore,” she confessed instead.

His heart broke at that, and he kicked himself for never having been able to help her feel that she wasn’t alone. “You never have to be alone again. I’m here for you. Okay?”

She nodded, resting her head back against his shoulder, even as she was starting to calm. “Do you promise?”

“Yeah. I promise.”

She was still afraid, and she had no idea how they were going to clean up the mess she had created. But she would have his support, and maybe… for right now, maybe that was enough to get through whatever would come next.


End file.
